DOJ working to share information on Biden and Trump classified documents: Report
Cami Mondeaux
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The Department of Justice is “actively working” to brief Congress on the possible risks to national security posed by the discovery of classified documents at the private homes of former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, according to a letter the department sent lawmakers over the weekend.
DOJ officials are working to provide a report to the Senate Intelligence Committee that will satisfy lawmakers’ requests while not interfering with the department’s investigations, according to the letter sent to committee leaders on Saturday. The Justice Department initially sought to brief lawmakers in September, but officials have since encountered “significant developments.”
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“The Committee’s interest in overseeing the nation’s intelligence activities must be carefully balanced to protect the conduct and integrity of law enforcement investigations,” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote to Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), according to a copy of the letter obtained by CBS News. “Disclosing non-public information about ongoing investigations could violate statutory requirements or court orders, reveal road maps of our investigations, and interfere with the Department’s ability to gather facts, interview witnesses, and bring criminal prosecutions where warranted.”
It has not been made public why the DOJ did not brief lawmakers on its initial findings in September. However, sources tell the Washington Examiner that scheduling conflicts contributed to the lack of a briefing.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in November he would appoint special counsel Jack Smith to oversee the investigation into classified materials that were found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in August. Garland later appointed Robert Hur as the special counsel to oversee Biden’s case on Jan. 12, two months after documents were discovered at his Delaware residence.
FBI agents recovered about 33 boxes of roughly 11,000 documents during its August raid of Mar-a-Lago. Roughly 100 of those documents contained classified markings, with some being considered at the top secret level. Before that, the National Archives recovered 15 boxes from Trump in January 2022 containing “a lot” of classified materials. In total, officials have obtained roughly 300 documents with classified markings from the former president.
Biden’s attorneys initially found a batch of documents inside a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center on Nov. 2, prompting officials to turn over the materials to the National Archives and Records Administration. The NARA then alerted the Justice Department about the finding on Nov. 4.
One month later, officials found additional classified materials at Biden’s personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware, on Dec. 20. Officials later found a handful of more classified documents after two additional searches at Biden’s Delaware residence in January.
Lawmakers from both parties have since called for investigations into the matter, pressing the DOJ for more information on whether the classified materials posed national security concerns.
The Senate Intelligence Committee met with Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines last week to discuss the discoveries, but Warner and Rubio lamented that they were unable to see what materials were found.
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“Our job is not to figure out if somebody mishandled those. Our job is to make sure there’s not an intelligence compromise,” Warner told Face the Nation. “And while the director of national intelligence had been willing to brief us earlier, now that you’ve got the special counsel, the notion that we’re going to be left in limbo and we can’t do our job — that just cannot stand.”
It’s not clear when the DOJ plans to share its findings with Congress, but the department has maintained that its practice to withhold information that is part of inquiries is part of the department’s “long-standing policy.”